The following is the work of Gavril Rosoklija, class of 2009.
In many works of literature, characters (not
necessarily the main ones) can be characterized as round or complete
ones because of a change they experience throughout the narrative. This
change often comes as a result of a journey and even more commonly as a
result of a physical quest which the character undertakes. What makes
these journeys study-worthy for me is their significance towards
revealing the inner characteristics of a character and with that make
the work more meaningful.
Analyzing
these quests gives me the opportunity to look behind the obvious story
line and connect the work to a broader perspective. Whenever a
character decides to go on a quest, he or she leaves the “comfort zone”
of his or her home and enters a new world filled with challenges,
surprises, successes but also setbacks. This allows me as a reader to
trace the characters development and discover the idea which that
characters stands for. Quite commonly these journeys or quests of the
characters in a text can be influenced by the author’s belonging, his
or her race, gender and ethnicity. Without looking into these journeys
I as a reader would not be able to locate the presence of the author in
one or more of the characters. Examples of such transformed characters
influenced by the authors belonging are Sethe Suggs, the doomed mother
from Toni Morrison’s Beloved and the curious colonialist Marlow from Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.
Toni
Morrison is a contemporary African American author who as a part of her
works has written a historical novel Beloved that belongs to the
neo-slave narrative paradigm. The fact that Morrison is of the same
race, gender and ethnicity as Sethe Suggs is significant for the
development of the narrative as a whole. Sethe is a creation of
Morrison’s; however Sethe’s character is based on a real historical
woman which Morrison uses for her neo-slave narrative. Morrison,
prompted by her racial belonging, feels the need to present the world
with a credible account of the African American history. She uses the
real life case of Margaret Garner in support of the trope of the
powerless African American mother that commits infanticide and creates
the character of Sethe Suggs. For me as a reader, the fact that Sethe
Suggs is an adaptation of an existing woman makes this completely
incredulous occurrence seem plausible. Morrison sets Sethe Suggs’ on a
journey which consists of getting away from what Sethe believes is the
heart of evil, the plantation of the school teacher and entering the
free land. Sethe wants to provide her children with the best future
possible, a future that is not dominated by humiliating milking and
constant beating. By making the character of Sethe Suggs go on such a
journey, Morrison is again employing an example from African American
history, namely the Fugitive Slave Act. Instead of finding the desired
freedom, Sethe is forced to commit one of the most gruesome acts a
mother can commit, the act of infanticide. It is a debatable topic
whether the fact that Sethe murders her little baby referred to as
Beloved in order to save her from being taken into slavery is something
that the society can forgive, however it is certain that it is a huge
step back in Sethe’s journey. Instead of escaping from the heart of
evil, Sethe is taken back and trapped by the ghost of Beloved and the
setting of “124”, the haunted house she and her remaining daughter
Denver live in.
Once again, the fact the Morrison is an African
American woman increases the importance of this novel because of the
relationship she forms as a woman with Sethe Suggs. What makes Sethe go
on this journey is Morrison’s awareness of the difficulties mothers had
to face when leaving the plantations where they worked and her
willingness to let the world know about the years of slavery. Moreover,
what makes Morrison set Sethe on this journey is her sense of
belonging, her feeling of repaying the men and women that survived
these gruesome events and brought up Morrison.
On the other hand, Joseph Conrad relates to us
the character of Marlow. Belonging to the age of Colonialism himself,
Conrad makes Marlow go on a colonialist mission to what Marlow though
is the heart of all evil. Unlike Sethe who hopes to go from the worst
to the better, Marlow thinks he knows that he is going to the worst
place of all. Instead, he is pleasantly surprised by what he finds in
the heart of the Congo River. There he meets Kurtz and the Russian
harlequin who seem to be leading quite a normal life, nothing as Marlow
expects. What can be seen here is Conrad’s reflection in the
perspective of Marlow. However, Marlow is by no means a direct
representation of Conrad as many readers today believe. What makes
Conrad and his character Marlow controversial today is the fact that
civilization is strongly against Colonialism. Conrad influenced by the
surrounding society creates the character of Marlow and sends him on a
journey. Since Conrad is British, his writing was influenced by the
colonizers and the character of Marlow reveals the one sided reality of
Colonialism without giving us any information about the perspective of
the colonized. All of Marlow’s decisions are determined by Conrad’s
choice to write a colonialist novella. After going to the Congo, Marlow
becomes what he always feared he would become, a typical colonialist.
Eventhough we witness African people been given wires as food, tortured
and forced to work, Marlow still does not seem to think that the Congo
is the evil place he was hoping to find. This is supported by the dual
setting Conrad uses, contrasting the present chat with Marlow’s friends
on the Thames and the past occurrences in the Congo.
Finally, both of these authors have decided to
mark their works with the influences that come from their race, gender
and ethnicity. Both Beloved and Heart of Darkness are
works where the characters created by the authors are not accidental
creations of the imagination, but have a deeper history and belonging
which is determined by the author. The actions of these characters are
a key part of these types of narratives, since reading into their
journeys is of essence to understanding to broader appeal these works
have. It is wrong to believe that the characters are a self-portrait of
the authors, but instead they are only told what to do by the authors,
the rest is up to the reader to decide.
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